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Summary for: Freaky fairy tales, spiders and red silk fill Kunsthalle Praha’s surreal exhibitionYou've never seen Pinocchio quite like this.
Spiders, bats, billowing red silk and more come together at the hands of French artist Annette Messager, whose works turn the ordinary into something you'll ponder long after you leave the museum. Her exhibition Tragikomedie, now on view at Kunsthalle Praha, brings together more than five decades of work, from intimate photographs and albums to installations that fill the galleries.
Messager combines familiar characters and everyday materials in unexpected ways, where objects associated with the home or childhood become distorted, humorous or unsettling. Her installations have the quality of theatrical scenes where objects have become characters, each suggesting a story of its own.
On view through Feb. 28, 2027, there's plenty to catch your attention, even if you’ve never encountered her name before.
When what you think you know becomes strange
For over 50 years, Messager has used photography, textiles and found objects to challenge assumptions about society, gender and art. Suffering and joy, humor and seriousness often share the same space.
“It is a real joy to introduce Czech audiences to the wonderfully strange world of Annette Messager,” says Christelle Havranek, exhibition co-curator and chief curator at Kunsthalle Praha.
“Her work reminds us that art does not require precious materials, that beauty can emerge from the most ordinary things, that horror can lurk beneath the most reassuring appearances, and that creating means playing with the utmost seriousness.”
Messager first came to prominence in the early 1970s, adopting identities including the collector, trickster, peddler and practical woman. Working with photographs and albums, she blurred the boundary between private and public life. These early works have the intimacy of diaries or personal collections, something that remained part of her practice as her installations grew in scale.
Fairy tales with something else to say
“Our exhibition really highlights Messager’s unique ability as a storyteller,” says co-curator Theo Carnegy-Tan.
Storybook settings, mythology and religion provide familiar starting points throughout the exhibition. In Chimères (Chimeras), spiders, bats and hybrid beings lead into the territory of folklore. Elsewhere, Messager opens familiar narratives to new associations, particularly around womanhood and how female figures have historically been represented.
Pinocchio is a recurring presence, his mixture of mischief, innocence and yearning reflecting the contradictions that animate her work. Promenade de Pinocchio unfolds in Gallery 1, where the familiar character becomes part of an expansive scene.
The exhibition culminates in Gallery 2 with Casino. Originally presented at the French Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2005, Casino won the Golden Lion for Best National Participation. Billowing red silk evokes the moment when Pinocchio is swallowed by a whale and reunited with his father Geppetto inside, a place of terror, reunion and fulfilled desire.
Make an afternoon of it
Tragikomedie is accompanied by guided tours, film screenings, lectures and workshops exploring perfume, jewelry and metalwork. Visitors under 26 are eligible for complimentary membership, allowing free access to all Kunsthalle Praha exhibitions.
The building, a former electric substation, also houses a design shop and café with a historic terrace overlooking Petřín Hill and Prague Castle.
